When fans heard that Kurt Russel was going to play Ego the Living Planet in the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie, a lot of people went "What?" Besides Mr. Mxyzptlk (a cigar-chomping dwarf from another dimension), Ego the Living Planet is probably the weirdest, most obscure comic book character no one's ever heard of. Still, as we've said before, who had heard of Rocket Raccoon before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1? But the weirdest part of Ego appearing on screen has to do with the deal between Fox and Marvel to get him there.

In Deadpool, we got to meet two X-Men: Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. According to a new interview, Deadpool screenwriter Paul Wernick says that the moment he saw the name "Negasonic Teenage Warhead," he decided that she must be in the movie:

"We were looking down the list of the 400 ['X-Men'] characters that Fox owns, and NTW jumped out and we were like, 'yes,' " said Wernick. " 'I don't care what her powers are. She's gonna be in the movie.' "

But the writers wanted to alter the character a bit—originally, NTW is a telepath, not a pyromancer (or explosion-mancer). This initiated a weird deal between Fox and Marvel, where Fox got the rights to use NTW in the Deadpool movie (with modified powers), but only if Fox allowed Marvel to use Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (Fox owns a lot of weird superhero rights, including the rights to the Fantastic Four and the word "mutant"). Paul Wernick basically confirms the whole thing:

"Kurt Russell ['s Ego the Living Planet] in the new 'Guardians' movie was the character that Fox swapped with Marvel to [change] Negasonic Teenage Warhead powers," explained Wernick.

That may be the strangest sentence we've ever read. And it's even stranger when you remember that Fox and Marvel don't have the best working relationship when it comes to all these superhero franchises. The swap of NTW for Ego the Living Planet, like a Cold War peace summit, may signal that the two companies can find some middle ground and create movies that do what they were supposed to: entertain fans and make absurd amounts of money.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 releases in US theaters on May 5th, 2017.